The numerous players who left Indiana University's men's basketball team since last season will prompt the school to take a reduction of two scholarships for the upcoming season in anticipation of penalties related to the NCAA's Academic Progress Rate, a school spokesman said today.

Spokesman J.D. Campbell said that's in addition to the one-scholarship loss for 2008-09 imposed as a self-punishment for rule-breaking under former coach Kelvin Sampson.

That leaves IU with 10 scholarships available, nine of which are taken.

The reduced scholarships might not have a big impact given new coach Tom Crean's late start in rebuilding the roster, with many of the nation's top players having already signed. It's unclear at what point Crean, hired April 1, recruited with the understanding that he would be losing three scholarships.

The APR has more severe "historical" penalties for chronic offenders. But IU associate athletic director Grace Calhoun said through Campbell that "we don't anticipate further penalties going forward."

It appears highly unlikely that IU's NCAA infractions case will be resolved before the academic year begins, so the Hoosiers are probably not at risk for more scholarship losses in 2008-09. IU, Sampson and former assistant Rob Senderoff are accused of five potential major violations.

IU has one scholarship player returning from last season — Kyle Taber, formerly a walk-on.

Crean has eight scholarship players available for the upcoming season, plus a transfer who has to sit out a year and will be eligible in 2009-10. That counts as nine scholarships for 2008-09.

Since the end of last season, IU has lost seven players with eligibility remaining. Eric Gordon went to the NBA. Brandon McGee, DeAndre Thomas, Armon Bassett and Jamarcus Ellis were dismissed from the team. Eli Holman transferred and Jordan Crawford also left.

Privacy laws prevent disclosures about the players' academic standing, but Crean has described IU's situation as "crisis mode" and said he "inherited a tremendous amount of dysfunction."

The APR measures retention and eligibility of players. It was designed to be a more current measure of academic performance than graduation rates. It is a percentage score over a rolling four-year period.

Teams can lose scholarships if their score is below a certain threshold and they have a player who left school early and wouldn't have been academically eligible had he stayed. In men's basketball, two scholarship losses is the maximum penalty.

Teams below a certain score are susceptible to historical penalties. IU was below that threshold in 2004-05 and 2005-06, but not punished because of other factors. In 2004-05, teams received a statistical allowance for the small sample size of players as the APR was getting started. In 2005-06, IU received a waiver from the NCAA because the Hoosiers' single-season score improved significantly.

That means IU has yet to receive the "occasion one" historical penalty, which is a warning. Teams below the threshold for two straight years receive scholarship and practice restrictions. For three straight years it's a postseason ban in addition to scholarship and practice restrictions. For four straight years, the athletic department is in jeopardy of losing its membership status in the NCAA.

At Marquette, Crean's APR score ranked 91st out of 337 Division I schools.

"The fact that all 26 seniors who exhausted their eligibility graduated (under Crean at Marquette) is an example of why we feel confident in his leadership on the court and in the classroom," Calhoun said.